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The popular Dragons’ Den returned to our screens this week and in among the nervous pitches and thorough dismantling of the best laid business plans were the usual requests for finance to get businesses of the ground. The dragons might not have given the time of day to many of the products, some of them are picked by the producers for their entertainment value, but equally, sometimes you feel a product has potential, just not enough to justify thousands of pounds from a single investor on the strength of a short pitch. At rebuildingsociety.com, we think this might change if the dragons only had to put a few hundred pounds of their vast fortunes in. Granted they won’t gain control of the business as is often the condition for the dragon’s offers, but they could keep tabs on the progress of their investment and if the lofty profit targets are hit, they can opt to offer more cash in return for a more influential role in the future. And it’s not just the likes of Duncan Bannatyne and Peter Jones who can take small debt arrangements with SMEs – it’s not mandatory to reduce entrepreneurs to nervous wrecks during a meeting either. Peer to business lending, or crowdfunding, gives ‘armchair’ investors the opportunity to assess the long term financial viability of a business with a relatively small initial financial commitment. In turn, this opens the door to take a more substantial stake in the business in future should the investment prove to be a success. null, curious investors can dip their toes in the world of angel investment with rebuildingsociety.com able to offer numerous investment opportunities in a diverse range of businesses.